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Mr. hillbillybear; Thanks for the photos. Very, very cool Enfield!  I guess my bias for "old time" stuff is showing again, eh?  Thanks again, Dwayne
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1958, I had been out of high school about 5 years then and was working on ranches in the Big Bend of Texas and rodeoing professionally at the time..I also did some guiding for my family and friends at that time, and finally settled down and went to work for the El Paso County Sheriffs dept, and started college part time, had a wife and two little boys and guided deer hunts for some friends to make ends meet and pick up some extra bucks....
I still had my 25-35 Win and my dads M-99EG in 250 savage that had served me so well on elk and deer over the last 10 or more years. My family of ranchers all used the 25-35, 30-30, and two uncles used magnums like the 300 Savage and the Win. 95 carbine in 30-40 Krag, and I was in awe of them.
1958 was the year I bought myself two rifles, a 99 Sav. in 308 and a pre 64 M-70 in .270 caliber, my friend and mentor in El Paso was Myer Erlich who owned Geneva Loan, and he would sell me any gun for $5 down and $5 per month, and I was poot'en in tall cotton.
Back then one could get a lot of flack from family and friends over using such big calibers and their ability to destroy a lot of meat, but that came to pass in time.
Lots of Springfield service rifles came out on the NRA market at $14.00 each and 45 autos at $7.50, that was cheap even then, but saleries averaged about $290 per month back then..It was a good time, everybody was an American, no dope on the streets, and if you failed to salute the flag, you could bet on an a$$ whupping, and everyone believed in God, motherhood, and apple pie, John Wayne, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, and a few others were heros.
With the returning of our soldiers from several wars, the 30-06 became king of the hill and never relinguished that title to this day..:)
Now if you guys want to know what deer, bear and elk hunting was like in 1945, thats when I began "legal" my big game hunting career. Dick shaw and Bill Weaver hunted our ranch and gave all of us a 2.5X Weaver scope and mounts for our low combed rifles, and low and behold they worked once we got some instruction and were told you had to "sight them in" !!:)
Last edited by atkinson; 05/23/09.
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Mr. hillbillybear; Thanks for the photos. Very, very cool Enfield! I guess my bias for "old time" stuff is showing again, eh? Thanks again, Dwayne Thank you for the kind words but calling me Mister is like putting an afterburner on a turtle it just don't fit 
Member: Clan of the Turdlike People.
Courage is Fear that has said its Prayers
�If we ever forget that we are one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.� Ronald Reagan.
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hillbillybear;
While I do tend to be a little formal, my intent is to show respect to my fellow �Fire members.
It�s something that my folks tried to ingrain in me and I�m trying to pass on to our kids. I figure if I won�t lead by example the offspring aren�t likely to follow, eh?
Thanks again for the photos. Enfield sporters are a sentimental favorite of mine.
Dwayne
The most important stuff in life isn't "stuff"
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Oregon45,What a great tread.
I was born and raised and currently live just south of you between Corvallis and Eugene. In 1958 I was 9 years old and just starting to tag after dad deer hunting. Around this time dad bought a used Marlin 336A 30-30 and put a Weaver K3 on it. Although he owned many rifles since then, the Marlin was his favorite deer rifle 'till he pasted away 3 years ago. I have that rifle now and use it often. Another of his favorite rifles was a Winchester 95 carbine in 30-40 Krag. He used it for elk hunting. A great uncle had a Savage 99 in 22 HiPower which he swore by.
The only center fire rifle my Grandfather owned was another Winchester 95 rifle in 30-40 Krag also.
In this area at that time most people were loggers, mill workers, farmers/ranchers and the guns they owned were what they could afford. One friend of mine, his dad only had a Remington model 25 in 32-20 so that's what he hunted with. usually when that little gun popped there was a deer down. Others had mil surplus Mausers and and what not but Krags and Springfields were probably the most popular, usually with the stocks whittled down some.
One of dads beat friends bought a Remington 760 in 30-06 when they first came out in the early 50's and put a K4 on it. Dad always gave him a bad time saying that that was too much gun for deer but again it was the only rifle he had. A side note on that Remington is in the mid 60's the old K4 went bad so he bought a Leopold 3X9 which I help him mount and we sighted it in. Using factory 180 gr. corelocks that old gun would would consistently shoot under an inch at 100 yards. I was so impressed I bought one and it shoots just as well and I still have it.
Factory bolt guns weren't real popular here mostly because of their weight and length. shorter lighter lever action carbines was the fad because they were handy and we rarely shot over 50 yards.I remember in the mid sixty's just before deer season BiMart would have Winchester 94's on sale for around $75.
Too the people in this area opening day of deer season was as important as the Super Bowl is today. We all got together and made drives and although the rifles we had weren't the latest hi tech they all worked.
Doc Now that you mention it, my grandfather (a WW-I Vet) hunted with a Krag carbine, and shot deer and elk in OR and WA. If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say many "normal" hunters of tha era used a 30-30, but the rifle loonies like bolt actions. My dad was such a rifle loony that he even handloaded his own ammo! I remember even in the early 70s that the 30-30 was extremely common. Maybe it stil is.
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1958, I had been out of high school about 5 years then and was working on ranches in the Big Bend of Texas and rodeoing professionally at the time..I also did some guiding for my family and friends at that time, and finally settled down and went to work for the El Paso County Sheriffs dept, and started college part time, had a wife and two little boys and guided deer hunts for some friends to make ends meet and pick up some extra bucks....
I still had my 25-35 Win and my dads M-99EG in 250 savage that had served me so well on elk and deer over the last 10 or more years. My family of ranchers all used the 25-35, 30-30, and two uncles used magnums like the 300 Savage and the Win. 95 carbine in 30-40 Krag, and I was in awe of them.
1958 was the year I bought myself two rifles, a 99 Sav. in 308 and a pre 64 M-70 in .270 caliber, my friend and mentor in El Paso was Myer Erlich who owned Geneva Loan, and he would sell me any gun for $5 down and $5 per month, and I was poot'en in tall cotton.
Back then one could get a lot of flack from family and friends over using such big calibers and their ability to destroy a lot of meat, but that came to pass in time.
Lots of Springfield service rifles came out on the NRA market at $14.00 each and 45 autos at $7.50, that was cheap even then, but saleries averaged about $290 per month back then..It was a good time, everybody was an American, no dope on the streets, and if you failed to salute the flag, you could bet on an a$$ whupping, and everyone believed in God, motherhood, and apple pie, John Wayne, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, and a few others were heros.
With the returning of our soldiers from several wars, the 30-06 became king of the hill and never relinguished that title to this day..:)
Now if you guys want to know what deer, bear and elk hunting was like in 1945, thats when I began "legal" my big game hunting career. Dick shaw and Bill Weaver hunted our ranch and gave all of us a 2.5X Weaver scope and mounts for our low combed rifles, and low and behold they worked once we got some instruction and were told you had to "sight them in" !!:) Our paths should have crossed!! YOU HAVE A PM!! Agree on the '06. Knew a number of guys on the Sheriff's department, including a guy who was later Sheriff, Mike "something" whom I almost hired just before he became Sheriff. Knew Myer well, and he gave the same deal to all LEO's as was I a bit before your time; a helluva guy. He went to school with my mother and aunt. I lived about three blocks from Weaver's place, between it and El Paso High School and also did some hunting on the Brite Ranch near Big Bend.
Used to be bobski, member since '01
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hillbillybear;
While I do tend to be a little formal, my intent is to show respect to my fellow �Fire members.
It�s something that my folks tried to ingrain in me and I�m trying to pass on to our kids. I figure if I won�t lead by example the offspring aren�t likely to follow, eh?
Thanks again for the photos. Enfield sporters are a sentimental favorite of mine.
Dwayne
I was trained that way too. You sure you aren't from the South.
Member: Clan of the Turdlike People.
Courage is Fear that has said its Prayers
�If we ever forget that we are one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.� Ronald Reagan.
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Regardless of other's opinions, you just can't go wrong with the 30-06! It was good in 1958 and in 2009 and, probably 2059 and 2109.
Last edited by djs; 05/23/09.
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Campfire 'Bwana
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Gotta be a model 70 in 30-06 No doubt. There is not even a close second. BMT ditto
Proudly representing oil companies, defense contractors, and firearms manufacturers since 1980. Because merchants of death need lawyers, too.
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My dad got himself a Model 70 Standard in .270 Winchester after he got back from Korea in '53. Cost him $95 and he said the shop had that one and the same gun in .375 H&H for $10 more so he economized.
He'd sold his Savage 99 in .300 Savage to a friend who wanted to use it bear hunting on Japan's Hokkaido Island and needed a replacement.
Bought a Stith 2.75X and had it mounted at the store. He didn't kill a deer with it until fall '58, a muley or blacktail in Modoc County, California. He threw a barbecue back at the air base and met my mom there (she was in the AF, too).
He bought a Model 12 with a Polychoke while he was in Japan, a Colt Woodsman and a 5-in. pre-M27 all within a year. He was a gun loony for sure. He still has them all.
We learned about handloading with that rifle in the 1970s. Didn't have many deer around here then so it ate a lot of 100 and 110 grainers that accounted for groundhogs and crow. Made consecutive kills on a couple of crows about 150 yards away with it one afternoon in '81. Best shots I've ever made.
Mom died last summer, but Dad still has the Model 70 that brought them together; his most recent game with it was a pronghorn near Rock River, Wyo., in fall '02. It was wearing a Leupold 4X by then.
He turned 80 last October and was a little frail so I got him some Managed Recoil loads to dust a small whitetail. They grouped 1-in. high into a .75 cluster with no change to his hot 130 BT handload zero.
He felt poorly and didn't go hunting last fall. Two weeks ago he was visiting with my brother who lives in Colorado and had a mild heart attack. Turned out he needed a triple bypass.
He looks and feels better than he has in years and is going to convalesce in Estes Park with my brother over the summer. We are conspiring to get the Model 70 out to him and let him show it to another pronghorn and perhaps fill a cow elk tag, too, before he comes back to Tennessee.
�When in doubt, I whip it out.� Uncle Ted ![[Linked Image]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v704/elrata/imagejpg1_zps585f4bbf.jpg)
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You might be able to find a war prize mauser during this time.
I did make a list of some of the new hits from this time.
I was born 10 years later so forgive me.
1) 300 Roy from Southgate.
2) 338 Alaskan Model 70.
3) Model 24 7X61 Sharpe and Hart
4) Flaig's custom FN 30/06
Sincerely,
Thomas
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1958: at that time I was 3 years old. My Old Man had an FN Mauser barreled action that he bought through a mail order outfit. The barreled action had a hinged mag box and a sliding safety and the modern streamlined bolt shroud. He bought a walnut blank and a piece of buffalo horn and built the stock out of those. The fore end tip, grip cap and butt plate were all made of the buffalo horn. He said he should never have made the butt plate out of the horn because it was so slippery. The rifle was a .270 Win and was sold about 1961 in Wolf Point MT when we needed some cash to move.
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My Hunter Safety Instructor was a cop who had a Schultz and Larsen 7X61 with a scope. It was the powerful rifle I had ever seen. I had a teacher in the 8th grade who was a handloader and a wildcater. He had a 17 caliber on a 218 Bee case. He was a gun nut it seems.
Some friends rifles I remember are a Husqvarna 270 20 inch bbl with a Tradewinds (I think) scope, a M70 30-06 with a peep sight, my Rem721 30-06 with open sights.
My wealthy buddy was a fan of Francis Sell so he bought a Win M71 in 348 WCF. Recoil was a problem and he later traded for a M70 Westerner in 264 mag. He had to handload 129 gr Hornady round nose (out of production now) because the original 264 mags used double diameter bullets and a real short throat. The muzzle blast was terrific and would raise a dust cloud from prone. One rich friend had two rifles, a Win m94 in 30-30 and a cut down SMLE 303!We hunted the Sierras for Mule Deer and later the foothills of Lake COunty for Blacktails.
I went pig hunting near China Camp above the Carmel River with friends. They used a Savage 99 takedown in 300, a M94 30-30, and I used a Mossberg 12 gauge bolt action. We almost got killed when the truck brakes failed on the way out.
I hunted on MT Umunum in Santa Clara County, CA with an Indian family from Old Almaden that used a 25-35 M94 rifle and a sporterized Krag with a receiver sight. The Krag user was real proud that he had bore sighted the rifle and considered it close enough. This was all in the late 50s early 60s
You can't miss fast enough to win!
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Shrapnel, i dont know if you have ever read about "Old Ephram" but it is said he was the last Grizz killed in Utah, shot by a sheep herder with a 25-35.in a little book i have about the story he claimed to have killed countless black's and Grizz with that rifle.
I guess the little valley i grew up in stayed western longer than most, when i started hunting in the early 90's, my gun and my brothers gun may well have been used in the 50's, his an SMLE 303, mine a '94 30-30. even my buddies were packing the likes of M99's in 243, 250-3000, '03 springfields and Enfields.. but i dont think any of use were really poor, by 18, we all had new bolt guns with a Leupold on top.
that grizz i was talking about is rather famous in northern Utah, he even has a big stone monument built for him near the kill site.I think his size is greatly exagerated tho, it is said he was nearly 11 foot and 1100 pounds! the Smithsonian has his skull.
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I don't think that Old Ephraim was the last, but I've heard that many think he was one of the biggest: http://library.usu.edu/Specol/ephraim.html
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1958, I had been out of high school about 5 years then and was working on ranches in the Big Bend of Texas and rodeoing professionally at the time..I also did some guiding for my family and friends at that time, and finally settled down and went to work for the El Paso County Sheriffs dept, and started college part time, had a wife and two little boys and guided deer hunts for some friends to make ends meet and pick up some extra bucks....
I still had my 25-35 Win and my dads M-99EG in 250 savage that had served me so well on elk and deer over the last 10 or more years. My family of ranchers all used the 25-35, 30-30, and two uncles used magnums like the 300 Savage and the Win. 95 carbine in 30-40 Krag, and I was in awe of them.
1958 was the year I bought myself two rifles, a 99 Sav. in 308 and a pre 64 M-70 in .270 caliber, my friend and mentor in El Paso was Myer Erlich who owned Geneva Loan, and he would sell me any gun for $5 down and $5 per month, and I was poot'en in tall cotton.
Back then one could get a lot of flack from family and friends over using such big calibers and their ability to destroy a lot of meat, but that came to pass in time.
Lots of Springfield service rifles came out on the NRA market at $14.00 each and 45 autos at $7.50, that was cheap even then, but saleries averaged about $290 per month back then..It was a good time, everybody was an American, no dope on the streets, and if you failed to salute the flag, you could bet on an a$$ whupping, and everyone believed in God, motherhood, and apple pie, John Wayne, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, and a few others were heros.
With the returning of our soldiers from several wars, the 30-06 became king of the hill and never relinguished that title to this day..:)
Now if you guys want to know what deer, bear and elk hunting was like in 1945, thats when I began "legal" my big game hunting career. Dick shaw and Bill Weaver hunted our ranch and gave all of us a 2.5X Weaver scope and mounts for our low combed rifles, and low and behold they worked once we got some instruction and were told you had to "sight them in" !!:) Thanks for bringing back some good memories. I'd imagine you bought some things from Momsen, Dunnegan and Ryan (sp?), too. All around Western rifles, as I recall: Win model 94 and 70 Rem 720, 721, and a few 722's and Savage 99. Plus assorted military rifles like Mausers and 1903's and Krags. Calibers were 30-30, 30-40, 32 Spl, 30-06, 300 Savage, 8mm, 25-35, occasional 348, and, oh that late comer -- what was it-- maybe 270 something or other.
Last edited by g5m; 05/26/09.
Retired cat herder.
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Thanks for bringing back some good memories. I'd imagine you bought some things from Momsen, Dunnegan and Ryan (sp?), too.
Almost! Dunnigan. You from El Paso? I went to school with one of the Momsen's, son of the principal; don't recall who was who but it was Gus and Leo. They were wholesalers and I don't recall they sold direct unless you had an "in". I handled their insurance and knew them well.
Used to be bobski, member since '01
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I was only 6 in 1958, but when I started hunting about 5 years after that, most guys carried "sporterized" Springfields, 1917 Enfields or a wide assortment of everything from Remington 81s, Win 94s, Marlin 336s, etc. The guys who were the most dedicated hunters and who traveled out of state generally had Win Model 70s in .270 or .30-06. Jack O'Connor was pretty influential, I think. 
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Thanks for bringing back some good memories. I'd imagine you bought some things from Momsen, Dunnegan and Ryan (sp?), too.
Almost! Dunnigan. You from El Paso? I went to school with one of the Momsen's, son of the principal; don't recall who was who but it was Gus and Leo. They were wholesalers and I don't recall they sold direct unless you had an "in". I handled their insurance and knew them well. Phoenix. They were in Phoenix, too.
Retired cat herder.
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